Yeah, it’s a pigs head, fresh from the slaughter for the gobs of pork served at a birthday party in the bush for a girl who turned 9 Sunday.
Pork: It’s what’s for dinner.
Grandpa out at the fire pit in the outdoor kitchen roasting up the pig’s feet to drop in the pot of beans for flavor. As they say in East Texas, “No part of a pig goes unused, except the squeal.”
Kimberly, the birthday girl in Seven Miles Village in Mountain Pine Ridge. Her family hosted and fed about 50 families Sunday. In what’s a really sweet tradition Kimberly stood up as all the guests lined up to give her a hug and wish her happy birthday. Some also gave her gifts, if only things like a pencil for school.
Grinding corn for the tortillas.
Sisters arriving on their bike.
So how is it, girls?
One of the bigger boys finally busted the piñata.
A relative from town ended up taking it home. (Sorry, my vegan friends; it’s a very agrarian culture.)
There was some nice, healthy plant food around the house.
And lethal red peppers to go with the red sweet peppers.
Kimberly’s little bro gonna take his 3-wheeler for a ride.
Or does that make it a 2-wheeler?
Just down the road from Seven Miles is Mike the Canadian expat’s zipline and caving place. The girl in the picture on the billboard is Mike’s daughter.
And what do you know–Big Mike his own self. He came to Belize 26 years ago and married a Belizean and they and their son and daughter live in a great big house down there where there’s nobody around for at least two miles in the evening, excepting the monkeys and night crawlers.
Mike’s nearby bush competitor is Calico Jack. Seven Miles Village-area is Zipline and Water-Caving Central in western Belize.
Grab a belt and put some zip in your life.
A small solar panel on the roof of birthday girl Kimberly’s house. It provides about six hours of light at night when plugged into a fully charged car battery. Most residents in Seven Miles Village have no electricity but I saw about 10 other houses and buildings with the one-piece solar panels. Solar energy is slowy but surely spreading in BZ where the cost of electricity for most people is very high–and one reason very few people have a.c. One reason I don’t have ac my own self, in fact. Believe it or not you can survive without a.c. in climate that’s as year-round as Texas in July. (Come to think of it, I went to school from first grade through high school with no a.c. and slept in a house for 10 years of childhood with none. Gad, how’d I ever make it through school??)
Until next time, thrill seekers: Hasta luega.
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